convention where last night bill clinton offered a 48-minute point by point rebuttal of mitt romney's critique of the obama administration. clinton putting into nomination the name of president obama. good morning, i'm willie geist. this is another special edition of "way too early" live from the black fin saloon in charlotte. a good deal has been made of the last four years of the relationship between president clinton and obama. last night the 42nd president gave a full throated endorsement of the current president of the white house. president obama even made a cameo after the speech. the two presidents appearing together on stage. president telling the crowd i'll see you tomorrow. president obama arrived here yesterday a day ahead of his own speech, one that's been moved because of weather, the campaign says, from the 70,000 seat bank of america football stadium to the 20,000 seat basketball arena where the rest of the convention has been held. last night that arena belonged to bill clinton. it was a democratic rock star's

welcome. even the entrance was vintage clinton. he walked on stage to his 1992 campaign theme song "don't stop thinking about tomorrow." over the course of the 48 minutes, clinton countered issue by issue the core republican question of whether or not americans are better off under president obama than they were when he arrived in office. >> the republican argument against the president re-election was actually pretty simple. pretty snappy. it went something like this. we left him a total mess. he hadn't cleaned it up fast enough so fire him and put us back in. i like the argument for president obama's re-election a lot better. here it is. he inherited a deeply damaged economy. he put a floor under the crash. he began the long, hard road to recovery. are we where we want to be

today? no. is the president satisfied? of course not. but are we better off than we were when he took office? president obama started with a much weaker economy than i did. listen to me now. no president, no president, not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years. he has laid the foundation for a new modern successful economy, a shared prosperity. and if you will renew the president's contract, you will feel it. you will feel it. folks, whether the american

people believe what i just said or not may be the whole election. i just want you to know that i believe it with all my heart. i believe it. >> so those are the broad outlines. president clinton then offered a methodical defense of president obama, budding the lines of attack made by republicans at their own convention in tampa last week. >> when congressman ryan looked into that tv camera and attacked president obama's medicare savings as "the biggest, coldest power play," i didn't know whether to laugh or cry. because that $716 billion is exactly to the dollar the same amount of medicare savings that he has in his own budget.

it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did. the claim that president obama weakened welfare reforms work requirement is just not true. but they keep on running ads claiming it. you want to know why? their campaign pollster said we are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers. now -- finally, i can say that is true. >> the former president emphasized the need for political cooperation in washington, praising president obama as a deal maker who keeps running into a wall of republican opposition. it's a theme you heard a lot of this week. >> though i often disagree with republicans, i actually never learned to hate them the way the

far right that now controls the party seems to hate our president and a lot of other democrats. that would be impossible for me because president eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate little rock central high school. president eisenhower built the interstate highway system. when i was a governor, i worked with president reagan and his white house on the first round of welfare reform. unfortunately, the republican party doesn't see that way. they think government is always the enemy, they're always right and compromise is weakness. >> as i mentioned, when clinton finished the speech, president obama did walk out on stage and bowing to the current president briefly before they embraced and waved to the crowd. president obama delivers his acceptance speech in that same arena tonight. joining me in charlotte, the executive editor of "politico." that man was feeling it.

>> it takes brass to get up this early and do your show. >> i do it every day, my man. i don't want to hear any complaints. what was your take last night? >> i couldn't have loved it more. you just think about politics and the history of politics and eight years ago how scuffed the clinton brand was. how four years ago how much tension there was between the two families. and now you have the current president needing the stamp of approval, wanting that stamp of approval from bill clinton to say that he's my guy. bill clinton's loving it. every single minute of it for 48 minutes. it was everything you expect of clinton. it had all the passion. he certainly was eloquent in taking apart republicans. he was at times self indulgent and at times went on and on and on. it's what we come to know as bill clinton. >> what a lot of people said last night and say again this morning that bill clinton articulated in a way that obama campaign itself has not articulated the case for president obama and against mitt romney. do you agree with that? it sounds a little patronizing.

like president obama needs bill clinton to take care of him on that. >> i do agree it with. it makes you wonder, the two men talk more often than most people thing and bill clinton loves to give strategic advice. it's surprising he has all got arguments in his head yet you don't hear any of them from president obama or the top surrogates. there is a lot democrats can learn from this speech. i will say as a note of caution, there is a pretty big disconnect between the speech that bill clinton gave and what you're hearing from the rest of this convention. there is no talk of abortion. no talk of social issues. no business bashing, no mention of bain. in some ways he is speaking like it's 1999. >> wasn't that smart though? talking about, you know, let all that other stuff fall to the way side, this is about getting you back to work is essentially his message last night. >> absolutely. if you think of this speech and even the paul ryan speech, the beauty of both of those speeches is if you read them, they're much tougher than if you watch them. they do it with a smile. they did it with a style that allows them to do a very harsh critique of the opponent without

offending people. and bill clinton still believes powerfully that 6% of authentically undecided voters are really going to decide the election that you have to appeal to them. he likes to talk about cooperation. he likes to talk about where there is shared sort of common interests in getting things done for the country. you haven't heard a lot of that elsewhere. >> i want to ask you something that happened a few hours perfect president clinton's speech. an awkward, unexpect the moment on the floor at the convention. it happened as democrats held a last minute vote to reinsert the word god into the party platform and to declare jerusalem the capital of israel. >> the matter requires a two-thirds vote in the affirmative. al those delegates in favor say aye. >> aye. >>al those delegates opposed say no. >> no! >> in the opinion of the -- let me do that again. all of those delegates in favor say aye.

>> aye. >> all those delegates opposed say no. no! >> i -- i guess -- >> i'll do that one more time. all those delegates in favor say aye. >> aye. >> all those delegates opposed say no. >> no! >> in the opinion of the chair, two-thirds voted the affirmative. the motion is adopted and the platform has been amended as shown on the screen. >> take a little issue with the score keeping. that was l.a. mayor who held three votes from before passing the motion. they criticized democrats for not including the language about

god and jerusalem in the first place. campaign officials said the change was requested by president obama himself to reflect his own personal views. help us through that. what did we just see? >> in north carolina, it's the south. you have the democrats fighting about whether or not the word god should be in a platform that is it meaningless for the campaign. you can't make it up. it's terrible optics for the party. i do think it's one of the dangers for this convention for democrats. there is a lot of rhetoric, a lot of speeches that i think a lot of people in the mid rl not going to find that comforting, particularly when talking about social issues, talking about god and having to restore god and jerusalem to the platform is not the distraction they were hoping for. >> especially when they had god in and took it out and had to put it back in. jim, we'll talk to you again. we'll see new a few minutes on "morning joe." still ahead, while president clinton was making his speech, the cowboys and giants were finishing up a tight one to open

the nfl season. defending super bowl champs looking a little rocky as they begin their title defense against dallas. highlights ahead in sports. and stephen colbert brought to tears while he fake criticizes michelle obama's speech from the other night. that and the weather when "way too early" comes back from the black fin saloon in charlotte, north carolina. >> stop all the talks. cut off the telephone. prevent the dog from barking. silent the pianos. bring on the coffin. let the mourners come. [ woman ] ring. ring.

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welcome back to the black fin saloon in charlotte. the president's speech has been moved inside. we don't have to worry about the weather here. let's send it up to new york for a check of the rest of the forecast with bill charnz. good morni bill karins. >> good morning, williwillie. michael is far out in the open atlantic, rapidly intensified last night. we have hurricane leslie that we're tracking. so two hurricanes and one feature of interest in the gulf of mexico. you can see the two hurricanes on the map here. the one that is going to affect the eastern united states is leslie with large waves and rip currents. that could head for the canadian maritime, especially newfoundland. also slow development is possible in the gulf of mexico. this isn't what you want to hear, especially after just what happened. it doesn't look like this should be anything too major. if anything does develop, it would drift to north florida three days from now. also showers this morning in northern virginia all the way

through delaware. still very humid through the mid-atlantic. chance of thunderstorms today through north carolina and kansas and missouri and brutally hot still in texas. 103 there in dallas. sti a chance of storms for you guys. as you mentioned, the forecast doesn't matter quite as much anymore. >> that's what they anticipated, moving the speech inside. bill, thanks so much. time for sports. the nfl season underway. many of you were watching president clinton last night, there was a football game over on nbc. the cowboys and the defending super bowl champion giants getting the season started at the meadowlands in new jersey. cowboys driving in the second quarter. tony romo picked off by michael boley. makes a couple guys miss. nice feet for the big fellow. gets some blocks. turns to the 5 where he is brought down by a horse collar tackle. turns out to be a good penalty. they settled for a field goal. over a minute left in the first half. romo buys time gets the cowboys on the board with a touchdown by kevin ogletree. cowboys trying to put it away in

the fourth quarter. romo finds miles austin. he goes 34 yards. good catch. cowboys go up two touchdowns. less than six minutes to play. would it be enough to hold off eli manning? less than three minutes to play now. eli drops back. a nine-yard scoring strike. that cuts the cowboys lead to seven. with the clock winding down, giants need a stop on third and ten to keep their hopes alive. they cannot get it. romo finds ogletree, the star of the game. that sealed it for the cowboys. giants become the first defending champs to drop the opener since the '99 broncos. cowboys win 24-17. romo, 317 and three touchdowns. it might be time to see if kevin ogletree is available in your fantasy football league. breakout game, two touchdowns, 114 receiving yards. those two touchdowns, by the way, the first of his nfl career.

to baseball now with the orioles loss to the blue jays, yankees needed wayne over the rays to reclaim sole position of the a.l. east league. scott evens the xwor a solo home run. still tied at four in the seventh, derek jeter grounds one to elliott johnson. tries to cut down the go-ahead run at the plate. the throw sails wide. another run scores on the error. and that's enough for the yankees. they stop their free fall for the time being. they win 6-4 starting a four-game series against the orioles tonight in baltimore. huge weekend series. elsewhere in the a.l. east, bobby valentine found himself battling controversy once again after he threatened a boston radio host in an interview yesterday. during his weekly appearance, valentine lashed out after a question was asked about his work ethic. he had some less than positive things to say about his time with the red sox. >> maybe you've kind of checked

out. you have checked out of this? >> what an embarrassing thing to sayment you know, if i was there, i'd punch you right in the mouth. how does that sound? sound like i checked out? what an embarrassing thing -- why would somebody even -- i mean that's something that a comic strip person would write. i think you learn from misery. you learn from challenges. you learn from failures as well as you learn from success. so, you know, this is what i chose to do, and i think it's been, you know, miserable, but i think it's also been part of my life's journey. >> that it's been miserable this year. valentine attempted later to clarify the comments saying the threat was a joke but he continued to defend his effort as the red sox manager. the loss to the mariners 2-1. finally, andy roddick's professional tennis career is over. it ended during the fourth round of the u.s. open yesterday when defeated by seven seed juan delpotro. before exiting the court for the

final time, an emotional roddick addressed the fans in flushing where he won 2003. >> i've loved every minute of it. and -- i've appreciated your support along the way. i know i certainly haven't made it easy for you at times. but i really do appreciate it and i love you guys with all my heart. >> 30-year-old andy roddick ending his professional career. coming up at the top of the hour on "morning joe," bill clinton does his thing, spending nearly an hour rebutting the republican case against president obama. was it the most effective and important speech of his campaign? we'll knock that around with joe in our "morning joe" crew. when we come back here, we'll huddle around the water cooler to watch vladimir putin add another chapter to his growing book of crazy. he bent frying pans and played with tigers, now he's migrating with birds. that story when we come right

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the romney plan fails the first test of miscall responsibility. the numbers just don't add up. people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. what new ideas did we fwroi

washington? i always give a one word answer -- arithmetic. >> and we're back live at the black fin saloon in charlotte, site of the democratic national convention. i again, behind the bar at 5:45 in the morning. you are literally on the bar. by the way, there is drinking going on. is that a black russian? >> yes. >> it is a white russian with coffee. people are drinking. >> last night's bill clinton gave a speech characterized this morning by "the new york times" as the cop stone of his political career. clinton now the elder statesman of the party has been a fixture at the dnc podium for a stretch spanning a quarter century. you want to sound smart today, tell your friends bill clinton has spoken at the last seven democratic national conventions. he debuted as a speaker in 1988 when governor of arkansas. that first outing on the national stage famously didn't go so well. his nominating speech for michael dukakis ran 33 minutes.

clinton got the biggest cheer of the night when he said "in closing" signalling an end to that epic speech. last night's speech by the way, 15 minutes longer than that one at 48 minutes. and now for the real news, let's check in wour man russian president vladimir putin as he adds to his long list of staged adventured. remember these classics showing off his physique while fishing shirtless in siberia in 2007. saving a television crew by tranquilizing a wild tiger. there was his treasure hunt in the black sea last year when he recovered an urn dating back to sixth century bc. they had planted the artifact so he could discover it. his judo skills were put to the test during a training session in st. petersburg and now yesterday, a new level of crazy. he climbed onboard a motorized hand glider to lead a group of young endangered cranes, birds,

on their migration to central asia. putin was dressed in a white costume meant to imitate an adult crane. this is the president of a nation. local news reports say only a few of the cranes which were raised in captivity actually falled putin on his flight. he was kind of flying solo up there. the president claimed high winds for making the glider flight too quickly for the birds to keep up with him. ladies and gentlemen, vladimir putin. late night stephen colbert expressed skepticism. that was easier said than done after first lady michelle obama took the stage last night. >> you see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still mom in chief. my daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my

world. >> that just doesn't ring true. in here. in here i can tell that's all bull. [ beep ] warm bull [ beep ] romney has to get some better [ beep ] >> we'll be right back to charlotte. like a squirrel stash, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air.

oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners.

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